The Radio Planet

The Journey

Paths through the archive

A journey isn't a playlist. It's an edited sequence — episodes pulled from different series and placed in an order that argues something, with a note at every stop explaining why it's there.

1963
November 1963

72 Hours on the Air

The assassination weekend as radio and television carried it: the bulletin that broke the day, the long vigil, the shooting of the accused, and the funeral that closed it.

Inside the box
  • Four Days in November — KLIF-AM Dallas — as it happened, part 1
  • Four Days in November — KLIF-AM Dallas — as it happened, part 2
  • Four Days in November — KLIF-AM Dallas — as it happened, part 3
  • Four Days in November — Voice of America — the news goes worldwide
Items

5

Extent

3h 41m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1938 – now
Fear, invented

The Night Radio Frightened America

How broadcasting learned to scare people, from the Martian hoax through the anthology thrillers to the modern folklore hour.

Inside the box
  • The War of the Worlds — The Mercury Theatre on the Air — Dracula
Items

1

Extent

55 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1969 – now
Curiosity path

The Universe, Explained

Start on the Moon in 1969, end somewhere much stranger. A path through the best explanatory hours on the network.

Inside the box
  • Apollo 11 — Onboard audio highlight 1
Items

1

Extent

5 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1930 – 1935
The first decade

Radio Before It Settled Down

Before the networks perfected the sitcom and the soap, radio was still improvising its own form. A path through the earliest surviving broadcasts.

Inside the box
  • Empire Builders (1930–1931) — Armistice Day Reunion
  • The Fire Chief — Ed Wynn (1932–1933) — The Prince Goes To School
  • Tarzan of the Apes (1932) — Tarzan's First Birthday
  • Chandu the Magician (1932–1934) — Transferred To Egypt
Items

6

Extent

2h 32m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1942 – 1945
The war, from the kitchen

The Home Front

Not the front line but the country behind it: ration points, war bonds, letters overseas and the comedy that kept running anyway.

Inside the box
  • The Bond Drive — NBC War Bond Parade Seventh Consecutive War Bond Drive
  • Treasury Star Parade — The Invaders
  • The Jingle Works — Alamito Dairy (spot 1)
Items

3

Extent

1h 9m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1939 – 1945
London on the air

The BBC at War

The British service through the war years: the newsroom, the Prime Minister's voice, and the propaganda aimed back the other way.

Inside the box
  • BBC Home Service — Huis Clos by Jean Paul Sartre
  • BBC European Services — Ici Londres Victoire Sovitique Stalingrad
  • Germany Calling — Lord Haw Haw Final Drunken Broadcast
Items

3

Extent

1h 11m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1943 – 1968
Canada's national service

The CBC After the War

Canadian radio's own repertory of drama, variety and detective work, built alongside — and distinct from — its American neighbour.

Inside the box
  • The Happy Gang — Broadcast of 29 July 1939
Items

1

Extent

14 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1930s – now
Sport on the air

Calling the Game

Play-by-play as its own broadcasting discipline, from the rink to the newsreel to the modern hour-long recap.

Inside the box
  • The Hockey Broadcast — The History of the Hockey Broadcast
  • Bill Stern's Sports Newsreel — Harry James — 1942
  • The Universal Newsreel: The Forties — Washington DC
Items

3

Extent

1h 8m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1932 – 1955
One comedian, one persona

The Jack Benny Vault

Benny built an entire career on being cheap, vain and thirty-nine — a running joke sustained across two decades. A path through its variations.

Inside the box
  • The Lucky Strike Program Starring Jack Benny at Christmas — Drugstore Frank Sinatra Frank Morgan
  • The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny at Christmas — An Old Fashioned Christmas
Items

2

Extent

58 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1935 – 1959
One gag, one decade

Fibber McGee's Closet

A single sound effect — the overstuffed hall closet — held one of network radio's longest-running shows together. Four visits across the years.

Inside the box
  • The Johnson Wax Program With Fibber McGee and Molly at Christmas — Mailing Christmas Packages
Items

1

Extent

29 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1937 – 1951
One character, three productions

The Shadow, Across Decades

Lamont Cranston's alter ego ran across networks, countries and decades. Compare the American original with its Australian counterpart.

Inside the box
  • The Shadow at Christmas — The Man Who Murdered Time
Items

1

Extent

28 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1941 – 1961
The frontier, dramatized

The Western Hour

From the Lone Ranger's masked simplicity to Gunsmoke's harder, more adult frontier — the western learned to grow up on the radio first.

Inside the box
  • Gunsmoke at Christmas — Christmas Story
Items

1

Extent

29 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1938 – 1955
Masked heroes for children

The Lone Ranger and Friends

The after-school adventure serial, aimed squarely at children and sponsored just as squarely by their parents' cereal money.

Inside the box
  • The Lone Ranger at Christmas — Peace Comes to the Frontier
Items

1

Extent

28 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1937 – 1962
After school, before dinner

What Children Listened To

The daily quarter-hour slot built specifically for young listeners — adventure, comic strips and moral instruction, sold with a cereal box top.

Inside the box
  • Let's Pretend — Why the Sea is Salty
  • No School Today — Day Before Christmas
  • Lets Pretend at Christmas — House of the World
Items

3

Extent

58 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1937 – 1957
Domestic sitcom, before the word existed

The Comedy of Married Life

Long before the television sitcom had a name, radio had already worked out its shape: a marriage, a misunderstanding, and a laugh track's worth of relatives.

Inside the box
  • My Favorite Husband at Christmas — The Christmas Present Switch
Items

1

Extent

29 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1938 – 1959
Games, played live

The Quiz and Panel Show

Before the television game show, radio worked out the format: expert panels, home-viewer stunts and a host holding the whole thing together.

Inside the box
  • Dr. I.Q. — Current Name of Peking
  • Truth or Consequences — Imitating Airplane Sounds
  • Quiz Kids — Guest: Jackie Benny
Items

3

Extent

1h 28m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1937 – 1952
Music, comedy, guests

The Variety Hour

The network variety hour packed a bandleader, a comedian, a singer and a sponsor into thirty minutes, live, every week.

Inside the box
  • The Big Show at Christmas — Deborah Kerr Louis Armstrong et al
Items

1

Extent

1h 28m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1935 – 1946
The dance orchestra, broadcast live

Big Bands on the Air

For a decade, a live band remote from a hotel ballroom was standard late-night programming. The music that later filled record shops was first heard here, live and unedited.

Inside the box
  • Glenn Miller on the Air — AFRS 024 - Command Performance - Cary Grant - Judy Garland - Woody Herman 07-28-42
  • Benny Goodman on the Air — AFRS 024 - Command Performance - Cary Grant - Judy Garland - Woody Herman 07-28-42
  • Duke Ellington on the Air — 15 Minutes With Crosby 1931-09-02 (1) First Song - Just One More Chance
  • Make Believe Ballroom — 1945-06-05 WNEW
Items

4

Extent

1h 6m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1943 – 1946
AFRS and the military audience

The Swing Era, Off the Air

The Armed Forces Radio Service built its own parallel music service for troops overseas, free of commercials and, often, of restraint.

Inside the box
  • Downbeat — Downbeat 5, part 1
Items

1

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1944
June 6, 1944

D-Day, Hour by Hour

Four networks covering the same invasion, in real time, none of them yet sure how it would end. Compare the American, British and Canadian feeds.

Inside the box
  • D-Day: The Complete NBC Broadcast Day — NBC — NBC2330 NewsandMusic
  • D-Day: The Complete Broadcast Day — Network pool — Part_024
  • CBC Wartime Service — Weather expert explains the Windsor tornado
  • BBC Home Service — Huis Clos by Jean Paul Sartre
Items

4

Extent

2h 32m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1939 – 1944
Propaganda, aimed outward

The Enemy's Own Broadcasts

Axis broadcasters ran their own English-language services throughout the war, aimed squarely at Allied listeners. What they actually sounded like.

Inside the box
  • Germany Calling — Lord Haw Haw Final Drunken Broadcast
  • Radio Tokyo — Hirohito Announces Japanese Surrender
  • Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft — Adolf Hitler Last Broadcast
  • Know Your Enemy: Japan — Know Your Enemy: Japan
Items

4

Extent

1h 13m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1942 – 1945
Wartime information, official

Why We Fight

The US government didn't just report the war — it explained it, in documentary series built by its own information units for troops and citizens alike.

Inside the box
  • Prelude to War — Prelude to War
  • The Battle of Britain — The Battle of Britain
  • Know Your Ally: Britain — Know Your Ally: Britain
  • War Comes to America — War Comes to America
Items

4

Extent

3h 36m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1942 – 1945
The studios enlist

Hollywood's War

Radio brought the film industry's biggest names to the war effort — reading the news, headlining benefit broadcasts, playing themselves for the cause.

Inside the box
  • Treasury Star Parade — Remember Pearl Harbor
  • Command Performance at Christmas — Christmas Special
Items

2

Extent

1h 14m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1938 – 1943
Before the films

Orson Welles on the Air

Welles ran a weekly theatre of the air years before Citizen Kane — the same appetite for scale, worked in sound instead of light.

Inside the box
  • The Mercury Theatre on the Air — Dracula
  • The War of the Worlds — The Mercury Theatre on the Air — Dracula
  • The Campbell Playhouse — Ah Wilderness
Items

3

Extent

2h 38m

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1936 – 1962
A different play every week

The Anthology Drama

No characters carried over, no sponsor gimmick required — just a new script and cast every week, built to showcase the medium itself.

Inside the box
  • The Columbia Workshop — A Comedy of Danger - The Finger of God
Items

1

Extent

29 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1942 – 1943
The craft hour

Suspense, in Its First Year

Suspense ran for over a decade, but its reputation was set almost immediately. Early episodes from the run that became the genre's benchmark.

Inside the box
  • Suspense at Christmas — Back For Christmas Peter Lorre
Items

1

Extent

29 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

1937 – 1954
Horror's radio decades

The Anthology of Fear

American horror radio ran as a genre in its own right for nearly two decades, distinct from suspense's crime plots and closer to pulp fiction.

Inside the box
  • Lights Out — Strange Couple Stays Overnight
Items

1

Extent

30 min

Internet ArchivePublic domain

From listeners

Paths other people made

Anyone can build a journey from their saved episodes, annotate each stop and publish it with a share link.

Build a journey

No listener journeys published yet — yours would be the first.